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Commemorative Exercises 

in connection with 

The Erection of a Memorial Tablet 

to 

George Sewall Boutwell 

In Groton Cemetery 
May Fifteenth, 1908 

Poem 
by 

WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER, Esq. 

Address 
by 

THE HON. WINSLOW WARREN 



BOSTON, 1908 



Commemorative Exercises 

in connection with 

The Erection of a Memorial Tablet 

to 

George Sewail Boutwell 

In Groton Cemetery 
May Fifteenth, 1908 



Poem 
by 

WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER, Esq. 

Address 
by 

THE HON. WINSLOW WARREN 



BOSTON, 190,8 



The Memorial Tablet in the New Groton 
Cemetery is inscribed : 

In Memory of 

GEORGE SEWALL BOUTWELL 

Jan. 28, 1818 
Feb. 27, 1905 

Governor of Massachusetts 

Representative and Senator of the United States 
Secretary of the Treasury 

Illustrious 

Citizen, Patriot, Statesman 

Consistent, Brave and Devoted Friend 

of Human Liberty 



The exercises began with laying of flowers upon the grave 
by the George S. Boutwell Woman's Relief Corps, No. 49, 
Auxiliary to the G. A. R., the George S. Boutwell Post, No. 48, 
Department of Massachusetts, G. A. B., and the E. S. Clark Post, 
No. 115, Department of Massachusetts, G. A. R. ; and the singing 
of Sir Henry Wotton's "The Character of a Happy Life" by a 
choir of boys from the Groton School. 

Letters of sympathy and regret were received from the Presi- 
dent of the United States, the Secretary of the Treasury, the 
Speaker of the National House of Representatives, the Lieutenant 
Governor — Acting Governor of Massachusetts, the President of 
the State Senate; from ex-Gove^npr Brackett, ex-Governor Long, 
Mr. Andrew Carnegie, Gen. W.'&. Bancroft and many others. 

The poem was read by William Roscoe Thayer, Esq., and the 
address delivered by the Hon. Winslow Warren as follows : 

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TO BOUTWELL 



I marvel not that Youth, 

Impassion'd for the Truth, 
Cleaves but to her, as bridegroom to his bride; 

Eecks neither praise nor blame, 

Heeds not the lure of fame, 
Knows that her smile were worth the world beside. 

But when in Age I find 

Young courage and young mind, 
And eyes that see their morning vision clear, 

Like him but lately dead, 

Who after four-score led 
Our battle-charge, I marvel and revere. 

Thou gav'st him life, State, 

Who wert assigned by Fate 
The noblest task of all the modern years : 

To clear a little space 

Where conscience should have place 
To worship God, and men with men be peers; 

A clearing by the sea 

Where none should crook the knee 
To king or pope or other man-made lord; 

A haunt where Peace might dwell 

With folk who lov'd her well, 
But still for Duty's sake would draw the sword. 

Beloved State, and true! 

Thy blessed gospel flew 
Throughout the West and loos'd the Old World's chains; 

Thy thoughts like lifeblood run 

Thro' ev'ry loyal son 
Who feels the stir of freedom in his veins. 



He was thy son ! he heard 
In youth thy puissant word 

And prov'd the obligation of thy breed; 
Obey'd thy civic call, 
Eose high, nor fear'd to fall 

Confessing thine instruction by his deed. 

His laurel'd name shall stand 

With theirs that sav'd the Land 
When mad Rebellion shook our cornerstone; 

His courage never quail'd, 

His counsel never fail'd, 
Till Discord ceas'd and Wrong was overthrown. 

To shine in such a strife 

Were crown enough for life; 
The newer labors to new hands belong; 

But when the younger brood 

Set bad instead of good, 
He rose, again a youth, and smote the wrong. 

Tho' Prudence bade, "Beware !" 
He answer'd straight, "I dare !" 

And swept like retribution on the foes; 
Put compromises by — 
Half-truth is still half-lie — 

Nor barter'd his convictions for repose. 

He heard but to despise 

The precepts worldly-wise 
That check the vanward impulse of the soul — 

The si}', corrosive doubts, 

The cynic sneer that flouts 
All virtue and denies the unseen goal. 

Years never palsied him 

With disillusions grim, 
Xor taught the lie that numbers most avail; 

He held that not to fight 

For Freedom and for Right — 
Our captains — is the coward's way to fail. 



He was not overborne 

By ridicule or scorn, 
Nor daunted by the dangers of the time; 

He even could resist 

The friends whose love he missed, 
The comrades of the causes of his prime. 

To suffer and endure, 

To keep the spirit pure — 
The fortress and abode of holy Truth — 

To serve eternal things, 

Whate'er the issue brings, 
This is not broken Age, but ageless Youth. 

WILLIAM EOSCOE THAYER. 



Address by the 

Hon. WINSLOW WARREN 



But three short years ago all that was mortal of George S. 
Boutwell was here laid peacefully to rest amid the surroundings 
he loved so well, and now in this spring time of hope we gather as 
relatives, friends and fellow townsmen to pay a simple, unostenta- 
tious tribute of respect and affection to that able, conscientious 
Christian soldier whose battle was always for the right as he saw it 
and who ever gave of his utmost for the preservation and moral 
benefit of his country. Favored beyond most men in the length of 
his days he was also favored that to the very end he was able to 
influence his countrymen by words of wisdom and counsel. No 
pomp or ceremony, no pretentious marble would befit his simple 
life — if honors came to him in double portion, they were only the 
reward of faithful adherence to plain duty and of natural abilities 
which he reinforced by constant and persistent labor. He loved 
public station but not unless he had won it by his own merit and 
for the purpose of effecting a public good. 

Born of the old New England stock — he was himself a typical 
New Englander — of the kind New England is most proud — a self- 
made man who in the making had availed himself to the utmost of 
his opportunities and who claimed by right of birth only the brains 
that God had given him and the frame that shirked no bodily or 
mental toil. In form and appearance and manner he reminded 
you of the Puritan of the olden time but toned and modified and 
humanized by the spirit of the age in which he lived. Although 



a large portion of his life was spent in public office and in the 
whirl of public affairs he loved nothing better than to lay them all 
aside and enjoy the quiet life of a private citizen in this peaceful 
town sure of the approbation of his fellow citizens and that confi- 
dence and respect which came from the simplicity and modesty of 
his habits, his sympathetic interest in all that concerned their wel- 
fare, and the rectitude of his life. 

I might well pause here, for I can pay no higher tribute and 
nothing that I can say can add to the appreciation of Governor 
Boutwell which you, his neighbors and friends, already have. The 
highest proof of a man's sterling worth and character is always 
found in the love and admiration of those who knew him best in 
the humbler daily walks of life and who bear him in tender mem- 
ory for what he was at home among them, rather than for the more 
showy and brilliant qualities which distinguished him to the outer 
world. 

I had known Governor Boutwell more or less all my life, in 
polities or in business, and it does not in the least diminish my 
high estimate of his character and attainments if I admit that I 
often differed from him while acknowledging the purity of his 
motives; the privilege of intimate acquaintance, however, came to 
me late in his and my life, but it was when he had reached the 
full fruition of a noble life — had satisfied a laudable ambition, had 
left behind an honorable and distinguished career, and in his old 
age had grasped the opportunity yet left to increase his country- 
men's indebtedness to him by devoting all his remaining strength 
and unimpaired intellect to rallying them to the defense of those 
principles of constitutional liberty for which he had always fought. 
His life was a singularly varied one and characteristic of our Amer- 
ican civilization. He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, Jan- 
uary 28, 1818 — his parents were of what Lincoln happily termed 
"the plain people" — honest, hard working, God-fearing people of 
old English stock — moderate in circumstances, and whose whole 
lives were a cheerful struggle against adverse conditions; but their 



ideas of healthy moral and physical training of youth were fortu- 
nately of the old-fashioned kind teaching industry, perseverance, 
mental discipline and the highest regard for truth and principle. 
The future statesman had few of the advantages of early educa- 
tion, none but what the common schools afforded in the winter sea- 
son, for in the summer his time was occupied in work upon his 
father's farm. When he was of the age of thirteen he left school 
to go into a store in Lunenberg, where his parents then resided, but 
he was indefatigable in reading and studying evenings, and at 
every leisure moment — in 1834 he taught school for a short time in 
Shirley and then became a pupil himself at a small private school. 
In 1835 he removed to Groton and became clerk in a store for the 
sale of boots and shoes and later the manager and owner; but he 
lost no opportunity of enriching his mind by the study of the best 
ancient and modern writers — he learned the Hebrew alphabet, and 
became familiar with the pure English of the Old Testament 
prophets and the masterpieces of English oratory. To poetry he 
was not much inclined although he read some of the older poets — 
fiction he read not at all and science did not appeal to him. 

The imaginative side of his nature was never greatly developed 
and his oratorical style was modelled upon that of the English 
prose writers of the 17th and 18th centuries — giving little play to 
fancy and showing an utter disregard of rhetorical effect. His 
range of reading as described by himself shows clearly the bent 
of his mind as well as his intense studiousness — he writes that 
between 1835 and 1841 he read the following books — and this was 
a period when he was actively engaged in business and very busy in 
current politics — Locke, Say's Political Economy, Smith's Wealth 
of Nations, Plutarch, Josephus, Herodotus, Lingard, Hume, Smol- 
lett, Cicero, Demosthenes, Homer, Pope, Byron, Shakespeare, Bos- 
well's Johnson, Junius, The Tattler, The Rambler, The English 
Eeviews, Text Books in French, Blair's Rhetoric, Blackstone, Story 
on the Constitution, The Federalist and De Lohme on the British 
Constitution. This is an imposing list, if a rather prosaic one, and 

8 



to many would seem a somewhat strange selection, yet it points very 
clearly to the object he had in view, to fit himself to take part in 
public life as well as to lay the foundation for the law — for during 
all this time he was at work studying his profession, mostly evenings 
after the day's labor was over, and he was also engaged to some extent 
in its practice. It certainly furnishes a most suggestive lesson to any 
who may think that success in life can be attained other than by 
the hardest kind of work. He took quite an active interest in town 
affairs and contributed articles on political topics to the press thus 
attracting the notice and earning the good opinion of his fellow 
citizens. In 1839 he was chosen upon the school committee of 
Groton — in 1840 was an ardent champion of Van Buren in the 
Presidential campaign, and in the same year ran for the Legislature 
but without success. In 1841, however, he was elected by a major- 
ity of one and between 1840 and 1850 was elected seven times 
though it is interesting to note that he met with defeat on several 
occasions because of his independent attitude on local questions. 

He had attached himself to the Democratic party with whose 
general views of a strict construction of the Constitution — regard 
for the rights of the masses of the people, hard money and a low 
tariff he was then in full accord — but he was frequently out of 
harmony with the leaders and held pronounced anti-slavery views 
which grew in force as his party became more and more under the 
domination of the slave power. 

After distinguished service in the Legislature and serving as 
Secretary of the Board of Education, in 1851 he was elected Gov- 
ernor of the State by a coalition of the Democrats and Free Soilers 
and was re-elected in 1852. Though a Democratic Governor he 
gave his party some anxiety by his independent course, gradually 
lost sympathy with it and became in 1855 one of the organizers of 
the new Eepublican party, with which he thenceforward acted so 
long as he believed it to be true to the principles of liberty. In 
1862 he was elected to Congress, having previously filled many 
important national positions — in 1869 he became Secretary of the 



Treasury under President Grant — in 1873 Senator from Massachu- 
setts, and upon retiring in 1877, was appointed Commissioner to 
revise the statutes of the United States and afterwards to many 
important positions requiring legal knowledge and ability. 

In this place I can thus only hastily sketch the course of his 
life, the details must be for the historian, for his distinguished 
services during the Civil War, through the reconstruction period, 
and afterwards, form an important part of the history of his 
country. 

It is enough for me to say that in all the positions to which he 
was called, he served with great distinction, that he was clear in 
thought, bold and determined in action — thoroughly open and above 
board — never paltering with his own conscience and despising those 
who set expediency or profit before right — yet charitable towards 
honest opponents and with no malice towards those who saw not 
the right from his point of view. He was a partisan in the best 
sense of the word — he believed in political parties as necessary 
though imperfect instruments to conduct the public business, but 
he never could become a slave to party or set the party name above 
the party principles. 

His study and practice of the law was too desultory and inter- 
mittent to allow of his attaining the high position at the bar to 
which his abilities entitled him. He never studied law as a sci- 
ence nor wooed that jealous mistress with the assiduity that success 
demanded, yet he tried numerous cases with skill and ability, 
and in the conspicuous and important legal appointments under 
Government showed a broad grasp of legal principles and a wide 
knowledge of precedents which if used upon a broader field would 
undoubtedly have gained for him high honors in the legal pro- 
fession. During his political career moral questions largely over- 
shadowed all others and while he had positive views upon purely 
political subjects, or when Secretary of the Treasury had to deal 
with broad financial matters — his great field was the moral one 
which involved slavery, and the efforts for reconstruction after the 

10 



war. He deprecated war but was a vigorous and constant up- 
holder of the civil war which meant to him the destruction of 
African slavery which he thoroughly detested, and so far as in him 
lay he proposed to remove that awful stigma upon America's fair 
name before final peace was made. The cost of its removal was as 
nothing to him as compared with the curse of its existence. He 
knew not the meaning of compromise upon such a subject — he 
fought with all his energy and drove his shafts straight to 
the mark, never pausing to see whether his doctrines or acts 
won popular favor, so sure was he that they were right. To many 
his views at times seemed extreme, but they were the result 
of careful thought with a single eye to the real benefit of his coun- 
try. His faith in the glorious destiny of America was supreme 
though it was not a blind optimism which saw no perils in the path, 
but an unconquerable belief in the wisdom and permanency of re- 
publican institutions. 

He stood with Lincoln and Sumner and Andrew and other 
great statesmen, through the war and after the war, in their de- 
termination that this country should be placed upon a sound 
moral as well as political basis. He shared all their views of con- 
stitutional liberty and all their faith in the rights of men of what- 
ever color — he felt with them that no man was great enough or good 
enough to own his fellow man — that every people must be left to 
determine its own form of government — that the best government 
of a people by an alien nation was worse than the worst government 
of a people by themselves — that the Declaration of Independence 
was no generality but contained imperishable truths not to be 
set aside when circumstances rendered it inconvenient for us to ad- 
here to them : — it was not to be expected therefore that in hid later 
years he could reverse these opinions of his life and he did not. He 
could never join the ranks of those who fancied a distinction be- 
tween Americans holding slaves and an American Eepublic holding 
subjects — he had read in the history of the American Eevolution 
that taxation without representation was tyranny and he believed 

11 



it to be tyranny just as much under an American President as 
under England's George the Third, and worse, from the fact that 
George the Third had never proclaimed any doctrine to the con- 
trary. 

The claim that the Philippine Islands were committed to our care 
by Divine Providence when he had seen them unlawfully bought 
from Spain and then filched away from the natives in bloody strife 
after they had been misled by our promises or actions — he utterly 
rejected as false and hypocritical. In these views he stood with 
many of the greatest and wisest living Americans, Republicans and 
Democrats — but he never stopped to count the number or the weight 
of his supporters or opponents, he only recognized that principles 
for which he had fought all his life were at stake and his duty be- 
came clear. Party dictation or expediency he threw to the winds — 
denunciations or caustic criticisms were as nothing to him — with 
infinite regret he severed his long-cherished connection with the Re- 
publican party and with the old fire undiminished devoted his re- 
maining years to the upholding of the same doctrines of human 
liberty for which he had given his earlier ones. He was of the 
stuff of which martyrs are made and might have exclaimed with 
Martin Luther — "Here I stand ! — I can do no otherwise. God help 
me !" 

Men may disagree with him — may be more willing than he to 
cut loose the Ship of State from its ancient firm moorings — but no 
lover of his country, no believer in high ideals, can withhold from 
Governor Boutwell admiration for his courage, his consistency, his 
devotion to his own conceptions of truth, and his fearless energy, 
when his age had fairly entitled him to repose, in giving himself 
to the cause of human liberty. 

I have dwelt upon the characteristics of the man rather than 
upon the details of his career — the emphasis upon his later years 
is only that they were the ripened fruit of his whole previous 
life. They illustrate the man of action and of thought — a New 
England conscience as rugged as her native hills, an indomitable 

19 



will and courage, a high sense of duty and great abilities brought 
to the welfare of his country. 

I have heard greater orators than Governor Boutwell, more pro- 
found scholars and thinkers, but no one who carried with him a 
deeper impression of intellectual honesty and clear conviction than 
he did. 

There was something in his very manner when he rose to speak, 
which insensibly attracted the attention of his audience and gave 
the impression that here was a man who had something to say 
worth listening to. This effect was enhanced by a slow, earnest ut- 
terance which grew in intensity and vigor when he desired to em- 
phasize any part of his speech, the tones of his voice manifesting the 
depth of his belief and gaining the sympathy and interest of his 
hearers. He never sought their applause but appealed with start- 
ling directness to their reason and conscience, seeming almost im- 
patient of manifestations of approval as though they interrupted 
the current of his thoughts and impaired the force of his words. 
He indulged in no glowing periods, rarely showed a tendency to hu- 
mor, although he was by no means without it; but in sarcasm he 
was severe and trenchant, yet however pointed it never stooped to 
insinuation or to unfair personal attack. 

His language was unaffectedly simple and Ms thoughts were ex- 
pressed in logical form and so clearly and cogently that they 
seldom failed to reach the understanding by their apparent frank- 
ness. He could hardly be said to have had the graces of oratory 
and he had none of the arts of finished speakers, yet his power 
over his audiences was very great and his mastery of Anglo Saxon 
speech gave him a success which more eminent orators might well 
have envied. 

Those who seek the lesson of his life as a guide to their own 
careers may well find it in his self reliance, his utter faithfulness — 
his untieing labor — his integrity of character and the openness and 
clearness of his utterances. 

Of course he erred at times, all men of positive convictions ever 

13 



will, and no one would have been quicker to admit it than he — 
in fact, with his pleasant smile and that quiet humor which was 
so subtle that only those who knew him best appreciated its force, 
I think he would have charged himself with more mistakes than 
he really made, for conceit or boastfulness were no part of his 
nature — but whatever mistakes were his, they were always those of 
honest judgment and they changed not at all the grand record of 
his upright life. 

It is a common remark that a statesman is but a politician passed 
away, and there is truth in it, provided the politician in his life 
has been honest with the people, honest with himself, independent 
and fearless in his convictions and has brought great abilities to 
the defense of what he thought was right. Measured by such 
standards many of our politicians may be hopeless of the award of 
statesmanship hereafter, but not so with Governor Boutwell; he 
measured up to the highest standards during his life and Ins 
lamented death full of years and honors, could add nothing to and 
detract nothing from a fame already secure. 

I need not speak here of the beauty and simplicity of his home 
life — y OU? his neighbors and friends, recognize in him the devoted 
husband, the fond and loving father, and the exemplary fellow cit- 
izen, interested in local affairs and always ready to give of his 
advice and co-operation to aid every good movement. 

Among you he dwelt for over fifty years and, although his public 
cares and duties compelled long absences, his heart ever turned 
back to the rolling hills and shady trees of his Groton home where 
undisturbed he could enjoy his leisure with his family and friends 
and forget all anxieties and troubles among the books which were 
the familiar and constant companions of his youth and the solace 
of his old age. 

Over his grave we have placed our estimate of the man — no 
fulsome or elaborate eulogy — but the few simple, plain words which 
embody his career — words which to all who read will show that 
here lies buried one of nature's noblemen — one who recognized no 

14 



superior and no inferior — one who walked among us in unaffected 
simplicity as a modest unassuming gentleman — yet one who brought 
great honor to the Nation, the State and the Town in which he 
lived, by a long life of honorable and consistent devotion to duty — 
illustrating the enduring nature of a successful career achieved by 
faithful endeavor and giving to those that come after him an 
inspiring example of the opportunities which this country affords to 
those who have the ability, the courage and the will to profit by 
the privileges of republican institutions. 



The Rev. Endicott Peabodv pronounced a benediction. 



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JUN 8 1908 



For once we have listened to a funeral oration that had measure. 
Emerson ranks it among the highest attributes of style, of conduct, of 
the gentleman or the lady, to "have measure." "Shrillness has been 
known," he goes on to say, "to put whole drawing rooms to flight." 
But tho measure in this funeral eulogy was not one imposed by any 
considerations of literary style or personal conduct. It was the habit 
of the well-trained New England public conscience, inherited through 
long descent; and it was most befitting for the occasion of the placing 
of the marble headstone on the grave of this particular "grand old 
man." Governor Boutwell. It may have been felt, too, that the grave- 
stone's plainness is severe in the extreme. But after the start given 
by the first glance at its uncompromising, sharp-edged whiteness, and 
the momentary chill from the measured conscientiousness of the eulo- 
gium, came flooding in the old conviction, with all its exhilaration, 
that we have bred heroes — cool and strong and severely good men — in 
New England, and rear them still — such single-minded, simply and 
truly American citizens of the ideal American Republic as Governor 
Boutwell and the Spartan band standing up with him to face the sneers 
and fury of the majority. Such men do not want, indeed cannot bear 
with merely eloquent and patriotic phrase-making and false "fine- 
writing," even in eulogy. Governor Boutwell was, at the national 
crisis which came really after the culmination of his long public serv- 
ice, the embodiment and personification for the time being of the New 
England conscience. Mr. Winslow Warren's weighing as in the bal- 
ances of history, almost as with the scales of justice, Boutwell's long 
political record — begun in revolt against one party and crowned at 
its highest with his revolt against the other — was simply more of 
this proud Puritan conscientiousness that makes us, to less earnest 
seekers after the highest ideals, seem cold-hearted. The truth is that 
nowhere burns there with steadier glow the fire of patriotism with 
the potentiality of mounting to the fierce outburst of consuming flame 
than ir_ these aame supposedly cold New England bosoms. The chosen 
few who surrounded Mr. Warren at the grave and in the little Groton 
town hall consented that their hero was great enough to bear the 
simple truth and would himself have permitted nothing less and noth- 
ing else could his assent have been asked. The same touching scenes 
were enacted over again in the beautiful old historic town as at the 
funeral — the apparent suspension of ordinary day's work, the old home 
of the veteran statesman at the end of the straight road from the 
"depot" again the centre of the town for the day as it had been in his 
life — the headmaster, too. of the Groton school with a choir of the 
boys assisting loyally. — Edward H. Clement, in the Boston Evening 
Transcript, May 23. 



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